This pack has been prepared ahead of the debate to be held in Westminster Hall on Tuesday 15 January 2019 from 9.30-11am on recognition of fibromyalgia as a disability. The debate will be opened by Toby Perkins MP.
This briefing paper provides information on the decision to restrict entitlement to the housing cost element of Universal Credit for young people aged 18 to 21. On 29 March 2018 the Government announced that restrictions on accessing the housing element would be removed. Regulations have been laid - the relevant provisions will come into force on 31 December 2018.
This House of Commons debate pack briefing has been prepared in advance of a Backbench Business Debate entitled “Cumulative impact assessment of changes to disability support.” This will be led by Debbie Abrahams MP and will take place in Westminster Hall on Wednesday 19 December 2018.
This House of Commons landing page briefing has been prepared in advance of a debate entitled "Overpayments of carer's allowance". This will be led by Ruth George MP and will take place in Westminster Hall on Tuesday 27th November, starting at 11am and lasting for 30 minutes.
This House of Commons Library landing page has been published in advance of a debate entitled "Two child limit in Universal Credit and child tax credits". This will be led by Alison Thewliss MP and will take place in Westminster Hall on Tuesday 27th November 2018, starting at 2.30pm.
This House of Commons Library debate pack briefing has been prepared in advance of an Opposition Day debate on Universal Credit, which will take place on Wednesday 17th October 2018.
Payments from the Social Fund can be made to claimants of means-tested benefits and tax credits to help meet the costs of a funeral. Payments are made from the regulated Social Fund and, as such, are not limited by budgetary constraints. 27,000 payments were made in Great Britain in 2016-17, at a total cost of £38.6 million. The average award in 2016-17 was £1,427.
Sanction rates are higher under Universal Credit, the Government's flagship welfare reform, than under the benefits it is replacing. In December 2017 around 0.3% of JSA claimants were currently under a sanction compared to 8.2% of Universal Credit claimants required to search for work though, in the case of UC, this rate has since fallen to 5.3% as of May. This higher rate of sanctioning, the DWP argues and our new analysis corroborates, is due to the way DWP deals with claimants who miss a work-search interview without good reason under Universal Credit compared to under JSA (one of UC's predecessors). Despite this analysis, however, there are still a number of questions relating to sanctions under Universal Credit that we cannot yet answer.
What do we still not know about the Brexit process or the withdrawal agreement with the EU that is currently being negotiated? This paper looks at some of the main unknowns.
This House of Commons Library landing page has been prepared in advance of a debate entitled "Funeral Poverty". It will be led by Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck MP and will take place in Westminster Hall on Tuesday 11th September 2018, starting at 2.30pm.
This briefing paper explains the Government's proposals for the future funding of supported housing. On 9 August 2018 it was announced that Housing Benefit will continue to meet residents' rent payments in all supported housing. The paper also covers the requirement on providers to reduce rents up to 2019/20.
Universal Credit roll-out was around 11% complete across Great Britain as of December 2017, in terms of the number of households on UC. However, progress varies considerably between constituencies. Almost half of jobseekers are now on UC rather than "legacy" benefits. The majority of households receiving support for rent, children or incapacity are yet to move onto UC. This briefing provides a guide to roll-out of the Full Service in 2018/19 and original HC Library estimates for the progress or UC roll-out by constituency, region and across Great Britain.